Synopsis

20 years after meddling into the bank heist of a notorious robber named Gasback, Vash the Stampede is heading towards Macca City. Rumors say that the legendary thief might appear there causing an enormous influx of bounty hunters in the area who want to collect the $$300,000,000 prize for his head.

When you hear the name "Vash the Stampede" mentioned in an anime conversation, what is the first thing you think of? If it happens to be Trigun in the first 5 seconds, I can safely guarantee without you even reading this review that you will like this movie....

...and if I asked if you heard the name "Valentinez Alkalinella Xifax Sicidabohertz Gombigobilla Blue Stradivari Talentrent Pierre Andri Charton-Haymoss Ivanovici Baldeus George Doitzel Kaiser III", and you answered with a smile that it's from the same anime, I can personally guarantee that this movie may even become a personal favorite.

So your probably wondering where I'm getting at by asking you these questions. Simple. If you haven't heard of Trigun in this day and age and you call yourself an anime fan, I suggest you stop what you're doing and go buy this anime classic quicksmart as the movie is tribute to this once great series.

Trigun, like many other classics I can mention, was pretty much entry level for anyone new to anime back in the day. When people use to ask why I watch "cartoons", I just had to sit them in front of a TV with this series playing and they were pretty much hooked line and sinker.(unless they were girls. period.)

Now before I start I'm going to be honest and admit that this review is going to be biased. Yes I'm a big fan of Trigun and yes Vash & Wolfwood happens to be 2 of my favorite anime characters of all time, but that's not what I'm going to be biased about. Let's just say that my favoritism stems from nostalgia.

When I had first watched the TV series, I was in my first year of college and the anime club of 6 people I belonged to were still watching anime via VHS.

"Ah yes....those were the days when hitting rewind actually meant you wait a few minutes"

So when I heard that Trigun had its movie premiere in early 2010, I was pretty much waiting in anticipation for it to hit our shores, and was also disappointed that the wait was going to be a while due to the producers not coming to my backwater country.

But as the saying goes: "all good things come to those who wait", and boy was it good!

Trigun: Badlands Rumble was created for fans of the TV series. There was never a dull moment while watching the film and if anything, it had made me fall in love with the series all over again.

Without giving too much of a spoiler, Badlands Rumble is about Vash's encounter with a bank robber named Gasback prior to the TV series. Due to Vash's "love and peace" nature, he lets Gasback go after foiling his botched robbery knowing full well that the man may become a threat to society later on.

Fast-forward 20 years later and the location is Makka City which most of the events take place for the movie. We are shown Gasback, now as a legendary bank robber with a very high bounty to his name(still paling in comparison to Vash's) and a horde of bounty hunters after his head in that city.

Now I'm not 100% sure if the film is in the same timeline as the TV series or an alternate(since Wolfwood makes an appearance) and if it is, where in the series it would have most likely taken place, but one thing I can say is that the movie had retained that 'certain feel' which most fans had come to love about Trigun.

The original cast of Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl and Milly was a welcome sight after 10 long years, and seeing their antics and personalities in a cinematic film was a treat for any fan of the series.

We are also provided with 2 new characters who play pivotal roles in the film. The first being Gasback(a cheap knock-off of Brilliant Dynamite Neon from episode 7 of the TV series) and the other named Amelia: a female bounty hunter with a dark past which slowly unveils through the course of the movie(and whose character design is equivalent to a female version of Ruth the bounty hunter in episode 1)

Now after rattling on about the glory days that is Trigun, you'll probably be thinking that animation is old school as well, but let me stop you there. If there's one thing age has helped with this movie, it would have to be its art and animation. Whilst Badlands Rumble had captured the essence of the original series, you'll find that Madhouse Studio had really put a lot of effort to this movie giving you eye-candy that is both rich in texture and detail, and at best could even give series made in 2010 a run for their money.

From story to character design, art and animation, soundtrack and even original voice actors, I found Badlands Rumble to be very well balanced and even accommodating for those new to the franchise. The pacing never felt "off", and everything had been executed so well that you could have even viewed this as a standalone.

In conclusion I found Trigun:Badlands Rumble to have the right elements to which the original series was well known for - a space western comedy packed with action and stunning gunplay that pays homage to the fans who loved the TV series whilst also a great introduction for those new to it.read more

The day was 4/2/2010, the location was Seattle WA at the World premiere of the Trigun movie, shown to a lucky audience at Sakura Con. The movie was Presented in person by Takahiro Yoshimatsu, and Saoshi Nishimura (the director). It was presented in Japanese only with no subtitles and I do not speaky the Japanesey. So I wasnt able to grasp the depth of the story.... :( but it was good!!!!!

I strongly believe that everyone could enjoy watching this movie. The reasons that make the Trigun series good is also what makes this movie good. If you like Trigun, you will like this movie. IF you havent seen the original story, it probably wont spoil anything (but then again maybe it will...) , but it will probably leave you asking a few questions... So just go watch the awesomeness that the series is first, if you have time. You will be able to appreciate this movie the most after having watched the series. I am very likely to watch it many more times, as soon as i can :D.

What you should expect from this movies is all of the same awesomeness that the original story provided. The artwork was virtually identical to the original series, and the humor was excellent (basing this fact only on what i could see was funny, I'm 100% sure there was a lot of vocal humor i missed as well). I do not think that it added anything to the original story.

EXTRA INFORMATION:

This story takes place somewhere after Wolfwood appears and as the director indicated : "It is an event that Could have taken place somewhere within the story of the series". It didn't seem to add anything to the original story, so it could be considered similar to a filler episode, but were talking about Vash the Stampede here, could there really be such a thing as a filler episode when Vash is involved? :3 Plus it was wicked awesome to watch.

It is worthy to note, that when the director was telling us some background about the movie (though a translator), he told us that the reason that this movie even exists is because of the American fan-base, which was so extremely vocal about wanting more Tri-gun. (FEEL VERY PROUD TODAY ALL YOU TRIGUN FANS!!!) This was also the reason we were able to watch this movie even before it was shown in Japanese theaters. read more

I remember when I watched Trigun that I wanted more out of the show when it ended, and not just because the conclusion of the show sucked. The show might have had it's flaws of a half baked morality message with a style over substance, ADD riddled fun-fest, but the other 90 percent of the show has great characters, more than wonderful art, interesting world building and a killer soundtrack that have produced one of the most fun to watch, funny, and endearing anime shows I've seen yet. So when I heard that a movie based off of said show was in the works, money naturally flew out of my wallet. However, I was expecting a lot more from Badlands Rumble, as it was made over 10 years after the series aired, and had high hopes of the non-canon feature fixing some of the flaws of the morality message, and I had hoped that the story had a specific purpose for being non-canon, rather than just more Trigun. Would this movie be Vash's untold story of when he killed someone? Would it be a feature explaining the true significance of Plants on the Planet Gunsmoke? Perhaps moral insight as to why there are so many outlaws? Sadly none of these are the case, and the film is just; you guessed it, the good and bad possibility that it's just more Trigun. Granted I don't mind the fact that it's more Trigun, it's got all the action, fun, and caters to the fans by including the same cast of characters, it's just that problems that the show had, but it also continues to have the same problems that the show had. So first; the positives. The movie definitely did a good job to catering to fans of the show such as myself, and the film slipped in the full cast of Vash, Wolfwood, Meryl and Milly, along with new faces of the sex-appeal stock character Amelia and the notorious-even-though-we've-only-seen-him-once-villain Gasback. Along with countless strange looking outlaws only in it to become the film's body count. So the film for sure hits the right notes in terms of including Trigun's steampunk-ish western vibe, cool looking characters, good natured humor, and it's high octane but weirdly safe level of violence, all of which I thoroughly enjoyed. I mean who doesn't want to see innocent little Vash steal everyone's bullets under tables or Wolfwood shooting grenades out of the air with that cross-machinegun he has, come on. And as soon as I was able to hear the staple Trigun theme guitar solo amid all the action, I felt a bit of a chill that gave me goosebumps and made me uncontrollably smile. But the main issue I have with the movie is while it's a lot of fun to watch, and like I said before, MORE Trigun for better or worse, the new characters don't really offer up much for substance nor are they very interesting in and of themselves. Which gets me thinking, because they never really explain why Amelia gets hives when a man (that goofy man being Vash) touches her. So if you're a fan of the show and you really enjoyed it, the movie is a fun must watch, but if you didn't like the show or are just looking for a fun movie to watch I'd pass it up. read more

I have to point out that if you think this is a continuation of the original anime, you will be disappointed, despite a lot of people thinking Badlands Rumble takes place between ep. 9 to 12, that makes no sense considering the proofs and the only one that could be needed to prove this movie isn't canon is that, Vash has no problem in hurting someone in the movie and that doesn't happen until ep. 26 in the anime where he finally undestands what he has to do. And 20 years has passed which i'm 100% sure that gap of time didn't happened in the anime from ep. 9 to 12; so you must see this as a stand alone movie, something that i didn't do and for that i was conflicted thinking this was a continuation and always thinking how can D. N. W. be alive and why is nobody surprised especially the Big Girl and why would Meryl be ok to be far away from Vash for 20 years knowing what she feels for him and also asking myself where was Knives? and other things...My point is that i would have appreciated someone told me this, because i really wanted a continuation of the original anime but this movie wasn't bad.

Story
The story is a little bit cliché and sometimes fells ''meh'' because it has the feeling half of the movie was a filler ep. (most of the time) i didn't like that Vash had the same ideals (he has the same flawed ideals where he always saves for the most part the bad guys but he's not aware that innocent people dies) but then proceeds to hurt without remorse and jokes after, at least in this movie i don't think there were casualties and i think no one would fall for Vash's death, it was predictable, he is the MC ''killed'' with 30 min. left of the movie, yeah sure i will fall for that. Despite all that it was good,

Art & Animation
This is what i enjoyed the most, the animation, the improved art style, i really was surprised how well everyone looked with a more updated animation and still captured the atmosphere from the original anime, really great.

Sound
The same cast of very good VA from the original TV anime, music and sound effects were enjoyable and very good.

Character
Same characters with the addition of new people, nothing amazing, but it was good to see Wolfwood, he's badass and it was funny to see Vash stalking and touching Amelia a good character but not much time or development to know more about her and another good character Gasback the main villain who's saved by Vash (always saving the bad guys) and is the plot for the story, with a lot of characters revolving around him.

Enjoyment
I couldn't fully enjoyed the movie because of what i stated in the beginning, i was thinking too much this was canon and so on... but the action was great, the action mixed with the great animation made me enjoy it more, a very good enjoyment is what Badlands Rumble left on me.read more

Recent Featured Articles

Hey, what were you doing back in 2010? Hopefully, you were spending your time wisely by watching some of the best anime movies that year had to offer. And if you didn't, then here's the list to get you up to speed!